Neerav wrote:
Do any WSG members have experience with non-english language websites?
I've some experience with Hebrew, but not much. For that matter, for the few sites I've seen, I don't recall any being Standards complaint.
* which is the best way to specify charsets (UTF-8, iso-8859-1, BIG-5 etc)
* which fonts display asian languages eg: Chinese Traditional/Simplified script well
My best recommendation here is to due testing.
As an aside, you should also look in Ruby. It was designed with East Asian languages in mind. Firefox seems to support it, as does TopStyle 3.1.
* What interface rules of thumb should be applied eg: for any given english phrase, the space taken up on screen will vary for different languages like German which will take more space.
I don't see this as a language at all. It is a Web Standards issue, though. After all, "...for any given English phrase, the space taken up on screen will vary for different" font sizes. If you want to insist on pixel perfect layout and fixed font sizes despite the wishes of the user, you're in the wrong place (or maybe you're in the right place, but haven't read enough). Short of using graphics, or that the user is using an out of date browser (like IE6), users can change font size at will.
* Whether its wise to use unicode notation eg: 相關資料 or some other way to display other languages in a web browser
In part, I would think it would depend on how much you need to enter.
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